Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A piece of magnetite that has magnetic properties and attracts iron or steel.
- n. One that attracts strongly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A variety of magnetite, or the magnetic oxid of iron, which possesses polarity and has the power of attracting fragments of iron. See magnet.
- n. A leading-stone for drains.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Min.) Same as loadstone.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a permanent magnet consisting of magnetite that possess polarity and has the power to attract as well as to be attracted magnetically
Etymologies
- First attested from 1515, from Middle English lode ("guide") + stone. From use as a guide tool by mariners. See also: lodestar. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English lode, way; see lode + stone (from its use by sailors to show the way). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The name lodestone comes from the old English meaning "way stone" because a sliver of iron rubbed with lodestone also becomes magnetised, and this is how the first compass needles were made.”
The Guardian: Weatherwatch: How does magnetite become magnetised?
“Anyhow, some genius found out that a small needle brought in contact with the so-called lodestone, or magnetic ore, absorbs the qualities of the lodestone, and when placed on a pivot will always point to the north.”
“Create a social media "lodestone" within each of your marketing efforts.”
“HOLC is too complicated to explain, and doesn't speak directly to the liquidity problem to make it some kind of lodestone for fighting the Paulson / Bush bill, which essentially gets around the unconstitutionality issue by pressuring congress to give up their constitutional mandate by handing it over, no questions asked, to the executive.”
“While snow has been the standard for purity since before Shakespeare, in the 15th century you would have been as right as an adamant, a lodestone that always pointed to North.”
“There is of course more than just a visual resemblance at work here: Chateaubriand has within him an ideological lodestone perpetually inclining him toward the sacred grandeur of the East.”
“Called the Countess of Westmorland's lodestone, it is a huge natural magnet.”
The Wall Street Journal: Welcome to the Museum Of Weird and Wonderful
“As the epicenter of modern jazz, New York City has always been a magical lodestone, irresistibly attracting talented musicians at every stage of their development and careers.”
“These elves had already bred a magical race of flying reindeer, and they assisted Santa in building his massive military-industrial complex at the Black Precipice (that is, the great lodestone mountain near the Pole, which causes compass arrows to point north) in order to bring his generosity to the children of the world through the delivery of toys to stockings.”
“In many ways, the current conservative debate is rooted in a seminal essay Jeane Kirkpatrick wrote for Commentary magazine in 1979, which became a lodestone for Ronald Reagan's foreign policy.”
The Wall Street Journal: Conservatives Spar Over Best Approach on Egypt
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lodestone’.
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Substancestry
Mysterious and theoretical substances and "stuff" of legend. More emphasis on the ancient, mystical, mythical, folklore, mathematical, and scientific. I won't be listing too many "sci-fi" or comed...
ylem, ichor, aether, ectoplasm, impossible object, quark star, eucharist, pixie dust, eitr, elixir of life, philosopher's stone, alkahest and 126 more...
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NTDW2
yawp, amidships, smug, jounce, fallow, conscionable, polyp, whit, nouveau riche, palatial, encomiastic, exchequer and 182 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, L
lisle, lahar, loupe, labret, latten, luster, lagomorph, lamentation, limicole, lunge, lobtail, latifolious and 182 more...
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good ones
grumble, fumble, bumble, stumble, crumble, mumble, jumble, humble, bramble, scramble, amble, ramble and 191 more...
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Airborn
Words and phrases from Kenneth Oppel's book, Airborn.
running lights, starboard, bow, gondola, bullhorn, rudder man, gas cell, keel, catwalk, stern, cargo bay, machinist and 152 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
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tranquill's Words
loquacious, unmitigated, trundle, ephemeral, vociferous, trapezoidal, liminal, obsequious, veracity, squash, onomatopoeia, oscillate and 267 more...
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smart pple werdz
petard, anxiogenic, paratactic, nonce, baldachin, eugenic, conflagration, innervate, counterfactual, corpuscular, reticulate, apodictic and 93 more...
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hagendas 2008
mise-en-scene, occultation, lodestone, obdurate, remontoire, filigree, insensate, carapace, vicissitude, verdigris, indivuation, intercalate and 224 more...
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New GRE Preparation List
All the words which I encounter during my GRE studies. :)
rhetoric, errant, arrant, artless, artful, ephemeral, libel, rhapsody, cloy, conjecture, relegate, aberrant and 927 more...
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Words to Learn
recrudescent, feckless, incorrigible, turbid, exiguity, fatuous, fatuitous, patent, parry, repose, resurgent, scurvy and 264 more...
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so as not to forget
in the process of moving lots of these from miscellanea (got bored, got work to do)
PS really enjoying the button that says 'Update so as not to forget'presque vu, standfirst, shit-eating grin, cathexis, epigone, lodestone, folie à several, coeval, gutbucket, home straight, you've lost ten r..., kissing-cousins and 3 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for lodestone.
amacleod03 All of my reference works say that this word refers to rock that contains magnetite or that it refers to something that attracts with a magnetic or magnet-like force. Even The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy gives a very dry scientific treatment. I had expected a cultural twist from Hirsch. What interests me is that my intuitive definition (i.e., the way I use the word) is not quite as described. Certainly magnetic attraction is an element, but it is not just any attraction, rather it is more of a directional attraction. In my mind, it is an orienting attraction, like the north pole. You might thing of guiding stars, the end of the rainbow, a road less traveled, or the beat of a different drum. It also refers to guiding values and guiding goals. My lodestone is made up of some combination of my path, my values, my goals, my desires, my needs, my companions on the journey, my teachers, my ......
Further, Lodestone carries a kind of scientific mysticism, almost an element of magic. Magnets are magical in their actions, having properties not visible in their composition or structure. That is you could have a horseshoe shaped piece of metal that is or is not a magnet. You cannot tell by looking at it. Lodestone looks like many non magnetic rocks. Gold can be seen, magnetism cannot. Only the actions of magnetism are visible We cannot even feel it. Hold a magnet and it is not perceptibly different from another piece of non-magnetized metal. And yet we know it is a force through its apparent effects. In this, magnetism provides a glimpse into a universe which is invisible to our senses, one that is not directly perceivable. Other forces, such as gravity, do exert perceptible force on us. Gravity’s very ubiquity makes it harder to be aware of. Something like lodestone, occurring naturally, must have been one of humanity’s earliest indications that there were forces invisible to the senses. It suggests a range of forces; it leaves open the door that there are as yet forces that we cannot detect and, which, nonetheless, effect us.
And so lodestone speaks to me of forces which I may not fully comprehend or be able to perceive directly which, nonetheless, shape my life and, most particularly, my life path. Lodestone speaks of Destiny. Jul 10, 2009
halcyonwhimsy I am going to list the non-geological definition because I love the possibilities.
-- something that strongly attracts
From O. English Oct 2, 2007